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Sunday we were mostly lazy, but in the afternoon we proceeded back to the Namsan area for some sightseeing with SY and YT. The central attraction on Namsan mountain is the Seoul Tower. When I arrived in Korea this trip, I remember reading in a tourist magazine that John left for me that the Seoul Tower was closed for rennovation, but would be opened again in October. I thought to myself, "Great". Well, the work is still on-going.

Not to be deterred, and not knowing initially that the Tower was closed, we headed up the mountain on the cable car. The first attraction was a smoke signal station, a row of 5 special fireplaces designed to make smoke.

SY and The Stumbling Girls By The Smoke Signal Station 

We walked around the top of the mountain for some time, taking in the various sights and views of Seoul. We encountered one ajumma who was making cotton candy, using a foot-operated pedal machine. She was celebrating her 40th year making cotton candy with this machine! (Sorry, no photo) Then we went down the mountain on the cable car to go eat.

Taking the Cable Car Down The Mountain 

To reward my Stumbling family for trying so many Korean foods, we chose to eat at a western place, Outback. (Well, technically, you could claim that Australia is in the far east I suppose). After enjoying ribs, various chicken dishes, and pasta, SY suggested a long walk. She said in Korea, when someone was full from a large dinner, they took a walk. I told her that in America, we took a long nap. First, outside the restaurant was an interesting statue of kids on a see-saw. We had fun taking some photos with the statue.

SY and YS#4 at the See Saw Statue 

The Stumbler at the See Saw Statue 

We headed to the newly completed Cheonggye stream / park. The place was packed. We enjoyed a long stroll along the stream, stopping to view the artwork in some places.

YS#3 and YS#4 Imitating the Artwork 

The Headwaters of Cheonggye Stream 

We reached the headwaters of the steam, and decided to call it a night. We entered the Gwanghwamun Station for our 22 minute ride home.

Saturday we went to see my friends WJ and HJ get married. Despite all the descriptions and explanations of a modern Korean wedding, I was still quite surprised at the differences. Actually, there were two ceremonies, a western-style one and a smaller, traditional Korean style wedding. Probably the biggest surprise was at the main, western-style wedding. There was lots of loud talking. In America, the wedding ceremony is very quiet. But at this wedding, it was very loud with all the talking, greetings, and socializing going on during the ceremony.

HJ is a teacher, and a big group of her girls came to the front and sang a song for them. Also, two of WJ friends sang a very nice duet for the newly married couple. As they walked down the aisle after the wedding, many of their friends and HJ's girls sent streamers and confetti all over them.

HJ's Girls Singing 

Streamers and Confetti 

After the first ceremony was over, many of the guests went to the banquet hall for their dinner. But some of WJ and HJ friends and family stayed behind for the photo sessions. After many photos, including one with The Stumbler and YS#4, the couple changed clothes for the the traditional ceremony. Here is one photo from that ceremony, with WJ mother and father.

Photo From the Traditional Ceremony 

Finally, after both ceremonies and the photos, we also went to the banquet hall to eat. Except for one table, we were the last guests to eat. We enjoyed many good Korean dishes. Mrs. Stumbler ate some of the dried/smoked fish we often see in Korea. She liked the taste, but found it easier to eat after she turned the dish so the fishes' eyes were pointing at our friend CH, and not her. We had some special soup - I don't remember the name, but it was a cross between Seolleong-tang (설렁탕) and Galbi-tang (갈비탕).

After the dinner, we say WJ and HJ again as they were leaving to their limo, and we wished them a happy time on their honeymoon. To wrap up the evening, we went to a park along the Han River, walked around a little and drank some hot drinks.

Thursday our schedule was to go to the Korean Folk Village. Our friend SC picked us up, and we drove through the normal heavy traffic to arrive at the KFV just before noon. Upon entering the parking lot, SC said "uh oh, many buses". The normal bus parking had overflowed into the car parking lot. On any day, you will find school children touring the KFV, and on this day there were MANY of these group - mostly kindergarteners.

School Kids Taking a Lunch Break 

These kids looked pretty cute in their colorful uniforms and matching backpacks. But I felt sorry for their teachers, many of them looked so exhausted and stressed out.

Here are some scenes from our visit

Tradional Paper Making and Writing 

The Stumbling Family - Good Thing We Didn't on This Bridge 

Early Korean Tennis Shoe Making 

YS#4 Tries to Make a Mask 

It is REALLY Good That The Stumblers Didn't on THIS Bridge 

Acrobats 

It's probably hard to tell with the resolution of the my blog photos, but at this acrobat show there were two kids on the front row who kept falling asleep they were so tired.

We ate lunch at the Korean market place, and to everyone's surprise YS#4 started to share my Samgaetang. She ate a lot of it, and really enjoyed it. When the day was winding down, around 4:30pm, all the adults were really tired and slow. But YS#4 seemed to have MORE energy than when we arrived! We think it was the Samgaetang.

Monday the Young Stumbler #4 was feeling sick, so we took the day off. Tuesday we had an easy day. Went down to the area near the Carrefour and Hyundai department store. One the way, stopped at a park and let the girls play some.

See Sawing Stumblers 

We arrived at Hyundai just at the opening time, and were treated to the sight of all the clerks doing their morning exercises. We had some cheesecake and tea as a mid-morning snack, then headed to the Carrefour for some grocery shopping. Got lots of groceries, and decided to walk home instead of taking the cab.

Wednesday we went out to the market at Namdaemun, and afterwards sat in the grassy park by the Namdaemun Gate and let YS#4 run around for awhile. I really enjoyed the market, since it was my first time to see it.

Enjoying the Sights and Smells of the Namdaemun Market 

Guarding the Gate 

The only other excitement was a delivery to our apartment. Our apartment building management has finally installed the automatic security system panels in all the apartments a couple months ago. It is a wonderful system - a delivery man or guest can ring your apartment from the front entrance, and you can see and talk to this person, and by pressing a button, let them into the building. All of this assumes you can read the Korean labels for the buttons on the security panel. In my attempt to let the delivery man in, I apparently pushed the CALAMITY button, and some pre-recorded Korean lady's voice began repeating some phrase over and over again. I called my friend CH, and he was trying to help me silence her, when he got a call from the apartment management wanting to know about my "emergency". We finally got it all cleared up, but now I am afraid to touch the panel.

On Friday morning, the Stumbling family (well, everyone but Young Stumbler's 1 and 2) left for Korea. I think the flight from Atlanta to Seoul gets longer each time I take it - just over 14 hours this time. Fortunately, we have the Leapster for YS#4, as you can see here.

Are We There Yet? 

We arrived Saturday evening, we were full of energy and ready for a long night (at least, that was my plan). My friends WJ and his finacee HJ met us, and shortly were joined by CH and his fiancee HS. The four of them, with one car and a minivan, were needed to take us to our apartment.

After dropping off the bags, we proceeded to one of our favorite pork barbeque restaurants. There we were joined by our friends JI, and SY and her boyfriend YT. It was a big party. The Stumblers are gradually being introduced to the Korea style of food and eating. We had a great dinner, and when it was over my family, unlike me, were suggesting that they were tired and sleepy. Since they are new to overseas travelling, I decided we should call it an evening and go home. I am glad I did, because on the drive home, I suddenly changed from wide awake to very sleepy myself.

Sunday began early, as Mrs. Stumbler and I woke up at 3am ready for the new day. The kids appeared unaffected by jetlag, slept until 7am or so. I prepared a combination breakfast - eggs, sausage and toast for eveyone else, sundubu jjigae (순두부찌개) for me - well, actually, SY had prepared that Saturday, and I just boiled it and added the eggs. After that we took it ease for a few hours. I tried, unsuccessfully, to get Mrs. Stumbler interested in the X-Man TV game show. But I think I can have YS#3 hooked on it after one more episode.

We hooked up with SY around lunch time and took the train up to Insadong (인사동) for some easy sight seeing. We walked and shopped about the first 1/2 of the area before turning back for lunch. I insisted we locate a western restaurant, and we found a pasta place that after sitting down, we realized catered mainly to women. The style and decor were very feminine, and I was only one of about 4 men in the whole place. We enjoyed various pizzas and pasta dishes, and were a little full after we were done - the waitress told us that one pizza only served 1 person, but in fact it was a two-person pizza. Then we returned back for more strolling and shopping. By about 4pm we were well worn out, and headed back to the apartment.

Traditional Korean Bride's Wedding Car 

YS#4 and her new friend SY 

Can't Keep Those Shoes Tied 

Mrs. Stumbler and YS#3 Resting Their Feet for a Moment 

Korean Flute Maker and Player 

So, after our first fun-filled day, we all crashed and slept soundly. At some point the rest of the family woke up and had a light dinner, while The Stumbler, being a seasoned international traveller, who never has problems with the time zone changes, slept through the night.